West Michigan Teens Vaping A Toxic Soup Into Their Lungs

High school kids all over West Michigan are vaping at school and the U.S. surgeon general warns parents of the long term health problems vaping can cause.

According to WOOD, many area high school students are vaping in school bathrooms much like their parents may have been smoking cigarettes in bathrooms back in the day...and yes, neither one are cool or good for you.

The U.S. surgeon general, Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that vaping these chemicals may cause devastating long term consequences.

Between very clever marketing from vaping companies and the fruit flavored aromas of e-cig's, most people think this is safe, its just flavored water they say. Don't be fooled by these.

Dave Stults, who recently spoke with Byron Center High School students and parents said, "This is a deadly cocktail. You don't know what you're putting in your lungs. You cannot ingest this stuff, particularly into your lungs, without there being a price. It will come to harvest. It has to."

Stults knows from experience on what chemicals can do to your lungs after having contracted an irreversible lung disease from long term exposure to diacetyl. Diacetyl is a chemical that is found in vape flavors that have creamy or butter based flavor.

Diacetyl is also a chemical that is in the vapors of microwave popcorn and that is how Stults caught the lung disease. Stults said, "I used to really enjoy microwave butter-flavored popcorn. I really enjoyed opening the bag and sniffing the vapors, but the vapors were where the diacetyl chemicals were."

Just like vaping chemicals, you may want to stay away from microwave popcorn as well.

Dr. Shelley Schmidt, who is a pulmonologist with Spectrum Health, also spoke to the Byron Center High School students. She said, "When researchers take these off the shelf, pods and e-cigarette juices, they find thousands of different chemicals and some are known to cause cancer, and some can certainly cause lung damage. Nicotine is an incredibly addictive substance and it's also a well known gateway drug."

Parents are urged to speak with their kids about the dangers of vaping.